An intricate device in today's serpentine-themed puzzle - five hidden SNAKEs coiled in the interior of the grid, connected head to tail by black squares in order of increasing length. As instructed in the revealer clue 48D, the black squares at the head (or is that the "tail") of the first four snakes "feed" them, so that the following snake is longer. Just like the video game, we're told. I was more familiar with Centipede back in the day, which had the same behavior if I remember correctly. And so we get ASP -> MAMBA -> GARTER -> ANACONDA -> BOACONSTRICTOR. Clearly some of those black squares were more nutritious than others!
You have to admire the trickiness involved in putting this puzzle together. I imagine Mr. Laedtke laid out the snakes first, and that dictated the rest of the grid. As a bonus, a couple of snake-related factiods are thrown in - they're ALIEN to Ireland and their "legs" are VESTIGIAL (though, to be honest, it's a bit of a stretch to be referring to a snake's legs in any sense). Very neat when it's all revealed! The snakes themselves weren't really a help in solving the puzzle, not for this solver at least - just a satisfying "aha" looking over the filled-out grid.
I was slowed down by entering ODDSOCK instead of ONESOCK for "Frustrating find while folding laundry", which messed up the SW corner for a bit. Didn't help that as a Canadian, the names of your Justices - represented here by NEIL Gorsuch and ELENA Kagan - aren't exactly top-of-mind for me.
Didn't love DRATS ("Frustrated cries"). A bit of an emergency pluralization, methinks. The one QMC "An aye for the eye" (NOD) made me smile. Overall, a fun Tuesday puzzle..
-philbo
Thanks for the theme expo, Philbo. By the time I finished the puzzle, the theme had slipped my mind. My one problem spot was in the same area as yours, but occurred because I typed OrgE instead of OGRE without realizing it, which left some unsightly gaPS in my puzzle. :)
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